


A Promise With A Catch

by thekindmagic



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-06
Updated: 2017-01-06
Packaged: 2018-09-15 08:23:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9226550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thekindmagic/pseuds/thekindmagic
Summary: Just a (slightly messy) Soulmate AU...





	

**Author's Note:**

> From [this post](https://daddynoct.tumblr.com/post/155317484670/ignoct-soulmate-au) on Tumblr that was so good I had to write something for it...  
> Originally I just did the beginning headcanons, but then enough people yelled at me that I had to go back and work the rest out!!
> 
> (I give up, all my titles are from songs forever: Matthew Good's "True Love Will Find You In The End")

_Noctis’s soulmate mark is on his back, just above the fading scar from his eight-year-old near-death experience._  
_It says: "Your Highness."_  
_The media think it’s hilarious, obviously._  
_There’s a new story every time Noctis makes a public introduction, speculation on whether the crown prince has finally found The One._  
_Noctis is sensitive about it, about the idea that he’ll never know - he won’t admit to it, but it’s a large part of the reason why he hates to take his shirt off._

_(Ignis never takes his gloves off, either._  
_At the time, nobody had noticed a three-year old’s excited "follow me" sketched across the inside of his wrist._  
_Ignis has taken great care to ensure that nobody’s had the chance to ask about it since._  
_He’s already picked the gloves he’ll wear to the wedding._  
_It’s better this way.)_

* * *

 

“You never told me you had a soulmate.” Noctis blurts it out one morning while they’re making breakfast together in camp.

Ignis freezes, pulling his hand in protectively. “What?”

“The other day,” Noctis says. He’s embarrassed, but he doesn’t exactly know why. It’s not like he did anything wrong. “You crashed early, I figured you wouldn’t want to sleep in your gloves.”

“Ah.” Ignis is still gripping his wrist. “I… I see.”

“You know who it is?”

Ignis stares at him. “Yes,” he says quietly.

That stings. For… a couple of reasons. “Anybody I know?”

Ignis shuts his eyes and takes a deep breath. “Yes.”

Noctis has absolutely no guesses. That administrative lady who made sure there was always coffee around the palace, maybe?

“Who introduces themselves with ‘follow me,’ anyway?” Noctis grumbles. “No offense, but they sound like an asshole.”

“Don’t say that,” Ignis snaps.

…Okay, so it’s for real. Ignis has a soulmate. He found them, and he’s into them. Good for him. It’s none of Noctis’s business, anyway. Just because Noctis’s heart has skipped about ten thousand beats over the years, once for every time Ignis has called him by his title, that doesn’t mean he has any say in this.

“Sorry,” he mumbles. “Just… what’s it like?”

“To know?” Ignis laughs quietly, rearranging some silverware. It looks like he’s mostly just making it messier. “It's… not all that it’s made out to be.”

“Yeah, easy for you to say. I’d rather know.” Noctis pokes with a vengeance at the eggs he’s making. “Especially now that the treaty’s called off and everything. Luna has a soulmate too, did you know that?”

Ignis is staring at him. “No. I didn’t.”

Noctis has the sign of the light on his chest the same as Luna does: bonded in their cosmic fate. But their plain old human soulmate words hadn’t matched. “Maybe she can find hers now. Before the whole world ends.”

“The world isn’t going to end,” Ignis admonishes.

“Like I said,” Noctis shrugs. “I’d still rather know. Even if they just…” He hesitates to say it out loud: the only conclusion he can reach. Because from here on in, Noctis is the King of Lucis. He’s 'Your Majesty’ now, not 'Your Highness.’ Whoever his soulmate is, they’ve met him already, and they haven’t said anything. “Even if they just didn’t want me,” he mumbles, staring down at his slowly burning eggs. “At least I could stop _wondering_.”

It takes less than two seconds for Ignis to grab him by the shoulder and tug him around so they’re standing face to face.

“Please, don't _ever_ think that,” Ignis says, his eyes searching Noctis’s face, his voice tight. “I'm so sorry, Noct- Gods, I thought I was- I thought-”

Noctis is completely lost. “What?”

Ignis laughs, a little raspy and hysterical.

Noctis is getting nervous. “Iggy?”

“You have no way of knowing what a precocious child you were,” Ignis says, smiling. “When we were introduced, I made the proper address, and you grabbed my hand and pulled me off to play.”

It takes a few seconds for that to register.

Noctis doesn’t remember, but when he plays it out in his mind…

_Your Highness._

“… _Follow me_?”

Ignis nods, looking giddy and absolutely terrified.

“You’re- I mean- Oh my god. _You_?”

“I’m sorry,” Ignis says again. He sounds it.

“You should be!” Noctis hits him in the shoulder. He can’t really be mad though, he’s too dizzy for that, his head is spinning. “You knew this whole time? Since you were _six_?”

“I didn’t think it was my place," Ignis says desperately, "I was a child, and then His Majesty put you under my protection. I didn’t-”

“Shut up,” Noctis says, and throws his arms around him.

Ignis holds on just as tight, squeezing him to his chest, his face in Noctis’s hair.

Shit, his _soulmate_.

Noctis turns his head a little so he can breathe. “I really wanted it to be you,” he says, smiling.

Ignis pulls back far enough that Noctis can see his face. He’s smiling, too. They both have tears in their eyes, because they’re both embarrassing like that. Because they’re meant to be.

Noctis reaches up with one hand and touches Ignis’s cheek, not totally sure how to ask for what he wants.

Ignis hesitates for just a second.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“When all this is over,” Ignis says, his smile fading by a fraction underneath Noctis’s hand, “you’ll still have a kingdom to think of.”

“Yeah,” Noctis agrees quietly. “But not right now, okay? Right now, I’ve got better things to think about.”

“Noct-”

“We’ll figure it out, Iggy. I promise.”

“…Alright.”

Noctis tips Ignis’s face toward him. “Follow me,” he says, feeling a little too proud of himself.

Ignis laughs. “Your Highness,” he teases, and lets himself be guided into the kiss.

(They let the breakfast burn.)


End file.
